t having got the range, he
shied it all against old Tom Drought's bed-room window.

'Deuce take that old sneak,' whispered Toole vehemently, 'he's always in
the way; the last man in the town I'd have--but no matter:' and up went
a pebble, better directed, for this time it went right through Loftus's
window, and a pleasant little shower of broken glass jingled down into
the street.

'Confound you, Toole,' said Devereux, 'you'll rouse the town.

'Plague take the fellow's glass--it's as thin as paper,' sputtered
Toole.

'Loftus, we want you,' said Toole, in a hard whispered shout, and making
a speaking trumpet of his hands, as the wild head of the student, like
nothing in life but a hen's nest, appeared above.

'Cock-Loftus, come down, d'ye hear?' urged Devereux.

'Dr. Toole and Lieutenant Devereux--I--I--dear me! yes. Gentlemen, your
most obedient,' murmured Loftus vacantly, and knocking his head smartly
on the top of the window frame, in recovering from a little bow. 'I'll
be wi' ye, gentlemen, in a moment.' And the hen's nest vanished.

Toole and Devereux drew back a little into the shadow of the opposite
buildings, for while they were waiting, a dusky apparition, supposed to
be old Drought in his night-shirt, appeared at that gentleman's windows,
saluting the ambassadors with mop and moe, in a very threatening and
energetic way. Just as this demonstration subsided, the hall door opened
wide--and indeed was left so--while our friend Loftus, in a wonderful
tattered old silk coat, that looked quite indescribable by moonlight,
the torn linings hanging down in loops inside the skirts, pale and
discoloured, like the shreds of banners in a cathedral; his shirt loose
at the neck, his breeches unbuttoned at the knees, and a gigantic,
misshapen, and mouldy pair of slippers clinging and clattering about his
feet, came down the steps, his light, round little eyes and queer, quiet
face peering at them into the shade, and a smokified volume of divinity
tucked under his arm, with his finger between the leaves to keep the
place.

When Devereux saw him approaching, the whole thing--mission, service,
man, and all--struck him in so absurd a point of view, that he burst out
into an explosion of laughter, which only grew more vehement and
uproarious the more earnestly and imploringly Toole tried to quiet him,
pointing up with both hands, and all his fingers extended, to the
windows of the sleeping townsfolk, and making horrible gr